City trader kills wife, turns gun on himself

DEVASTATED: Julius Thuranira?s mother Alice Ikolomi is assisted out of a car by her sister Beatrice Karimi at the Buru Buru police station yesterday. Thuranira shot his wife Frida Makena dead and turned the gun on himself on Wednesday. Photo/Philip Kamakya

August 14, 2015

BY KAMORE MAINA

      

A 35-year-old Nairobi businessman has shot his wife four times in the head after a protracted row over family property.

The man then turned the gun on himself and shot himself twice in the head.

The bodies of Julius Thuranira and Frida
Makena, 34, were discovered by neighbours in their blood-drenched bedroom in Tenna estate on Wednesday evening.

Buru Buru CID chief Henry Kiambati said the couple had a troubled marriage and quarrelled frequently.

Before the tragic end, the two are reported to have had a violent argument over plots they jointly owned in Nairobi.

Makena and Thuranira separated for several years and its only last Friday that they seemed to have made up and moved in their rented house on Manyanja Road.

Their car was parked outside their home for the period they were away.

Neighbours said they had been home for close to a week before Wednesday’s tragedy.

The couple had two children aged 15 and two.

Police, who said Thuranira was a licensed
gun holder, found the
pistol he is said to have used.

They recorded a statement from the couple's daughter, who was in the house during the killing.

Sources said the daughter told police they woke up yesterday morning and found the door to their parent's bedroom locked.

She knocked on the bedroom door as the father, who usually left home early, seemed to have overslept, but there was no response.

At 8am, the boy decided to check on her parents again and after he
failed to open the door, she called neighbours, who informed the police.

Yesterday, Thuranira's mother Alice said her son had a troubled marriage with Makena.

She said he visited her in Meru and complained that his wife had transferred his property to her name.

The property include 10 acres in Kitengela, a building in Isiolo and a
Toyota Probox car, which is detained at a police station in Meru.

 Alice said before the tragedy, Thuranira visited his sister and said Makena had transferred all the property to her name, leaving him poor.

She said the couple was involved in a bitter row over the property last September, but the matter was partially resolved by Njuri Ncheke elders.

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